Bernie Sanders: “Hillary Clinton will make an outstanding president and I am proud to stand with her here today.”

Hillary Clinton understands that we must fix an economy in America that is rigged and that sends almost all new wealth and income to the top one percent. Hillary Clinton understands that if someone in America works 40 hours a week, that person should not be living in poverty. She believes that we should raise the minimum wage to a living wage. And she wants to create millions of new jobs by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure. – our roads, bridges, water systems and wastewater plants.

But her opponent – Donald Trump – well, he has a very different view. He believes that states should have the right to lower the minimum wage or even abolish the concept of the minimum wage altogether. If Donald Trump is elected, we will see no increase in the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour – a starvation wage.

This election is about which candidate will nominate Supreme Court justices who are prepared to overturn the disastrous Citizens United decision which allows billionaires to buy elections and undermine our democracy; about who will appoint new justices on the Supreme Court who will defend a woman’s right to choose, the rights of the LGBT community, workers’ rights, the needs of minorities and immigrants, and the government’s ability to protect the environment.

If you don’t believe this election is important, take a moment to think about the Supreme Court justices that Donald Trump will nominate, and what that means to civil liberties, equal rights and the future of our country.

This campaign is about moving the United States toward universal health care and reducing the number of people who are uninsured or under-insured. Hillary Clinton wants to see that all Americans have the right to choose a public option in their health care exchange, which will lower the cost of health care. She also believes that anyone 55 years or older should be able to opt in to Medicare and she wants to see millions more Americans gain access to primary health care, dental care, mental health counseling and low-cost prescription drugs through a major expansion of community health centers throughout this country. Hillary is committed to seeing thousands of young doctors, nurses, psychologists, dentists and other medical professionals practice in underserved areas as we follow through on President Obama’s idea of tripling funding for the National Health Service Corps.

In New Hampshire, in Vermont and across the country we have a major epidemic of opiate and heroin addiction. People are dying every day from overdoses. Hillary Clinton understands that if we are serious about addressing this crisis we need major changes in the way we deliver mental health treatment. That’s what expanding community health centers will do and that is what getting medical personnel into the areas we need them most will do.

And What is Donald Trump’s position on health care? No surprise there. Same old, same old Republican contempt for working families. He wants to abolish the Affordable Care Act, throw 20 million people off of the health insurance they currently have and cut Medicaid for lower-income Americans. The last thing we need today in America is a president who doesn’t care about whether millions will lose access to the health care coverage that they desperately need. We need more people with access to quality health care, not fewer.

Hillary Clinton also understands that millions of seniors, disabled vets and others are struggling with the outrageously high cost of prescription drugs. She and I are in agreement that Medicare must negotiate drug prices with the pharmaceutical industry and that we must expand the use of generic medicine. Drug companies should not be making billions in profits while one in five Americans are unable to afford the medicine they need. The greed of the drug companies must end.

This election is about the grotesque level of income and wealth inequality that currently exists, the worst it has been since 1928. Hillary Clinton knows that something is very wrong when the very rich become richer while many others are working longer hours for lower wages. She knows that it is absurd that middle-class Americans are paying an effective tax rate higher than hedge fund millionaires, and that there are corporations in this country making billions in profit while they pay no federal income taxes in a given year because of loopholes their lobbyists created. While Hillary Clinton supports making our tax code fairer, Donald Trump wants to give hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks to the very wealthiest people in this country. His reckless economic policies will not only exacerbate income and wealth inequality, they would increase our national debt by trillions of dollars.

This election is about the thousands of young people I have met who have left college deeply in debt, the many others who cannot afford to go to college and the need for this country to have the best educated workforce in the world if we are to compete effectively in a highly competitive global economy. Hillary Clinton believes that we must substantially lower student debt, and that we must make public colleges and universities tuition free for the middle class and working families of this country. This is a major initiative that will revolutionize higher education in this country and improve the lives of millions. Think of what it will mean when every child in this country, regardless of the income of their family, knows that if they study hard and do well in school – yes, they will be able to get a college education and leave school without debt.

This election is about climate change, the greatest environmental crisis facing our planet, and the need to leave this world in a way that is healthy and habitable for our kids and future generations. Hillary Clinton is listening to the scientists who tell us that if we do not act boldly in the very near future there will be more drought, more floods, more acidification of the oceans, more rising sea levels. She understands that we must work with countries around the world in transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels and into energy efficiency and sustainable energy – and that when we do that we can create a whole lot of good paying jobs. Donald Trump: Well, like most Republicans, he chooses to reject science – something no presidential candidate should do. He believes that climate change is a hoax. In fact, he wants to expand the use of fossil fuel. That would be a disaster for our country and our planet.

This election is about the leadership we need to pass comprehensive immigration reform and repair a broken criminal justice system. It’s about making sure that young people in this country are in good schools or at good jobs, not in jail cells. Secretary Clinton understands that we don’t need to have more people in jail than any other country on earth, at an expense of $80 billion a year.

In these stressful times for our country, this election must be about bringing our people together, not dividing us up. While Donald Trump is busy insulting Mexicans, Muslims, women, African Americans and veterans, Hillary Clinton understands that our diversity is one of our greatest strengths. Yes. We become stronger when black and white, Latino, Asian American, Native American – all of us – stand together. Yes. We become stronger when men and women, young and old, gay and straight, native born and immigrant fight to rid this country of all forms of bigotry.

It is no secret that Hillary Clinton and I disagree on a number of issues. That’s what this campaign has been about. That’s what democracy is about. But I am happy to tell you that at the Democratic Platform Committee which ended Sunday night in Orlando, there was a significant coming together between the two campaigns and we produced, by far, the most progressive platform in the history of the Democratic Party. Our job now is to see that platform implemented by a Democratic Senate, a Democratic House and a Hillary Clinton president – and I am going to do everything I can to make that happen.

I have known Hillary Clinton for 25 years. I remember her as a great first lady who broke precedent in terms of the role that a first lady was supposed to play as she helped lead the fight for universal health care. I served with her in the United States Senate and know her as a fierce advocate for the rights of children.

Hillary Clinton will make an outstanding president and I am proud to stand with her here today.

As far as Hillary is concerned, she has everything she needs from Bernie with his endorsement today, with maybe the exception of his mailing list.

Sure, Hillary and Debbie will allow Bernie to give a speech at the convention where he’ll be treated like an doddering Hollywood nobody, receiving an obscure one-off award only to be pushed off stage when the orchestra cuts him off.

But beyond that, that’s the last anyone will hear from him. Or many of you, his Blue Mass Group supporters.

Very generous with Cambridge students and Navy vets. My Somerville town chair is a Navy vet who works in Lexington and occasionally moonlights as an Uber driver on his commute home, who would always get a heads up from Adm James if he needed a ride back to the city. He’s taking my other friend who’s a retiring USN Lt. and her husband out for dinner when they get to Boston when she starts her MALD at Fletcher. Other alumni of the program have told me he’s a great Dean.

We’ve corresponded over Twitter and Facebook and he’s struck me as accessible and enthusiastic about NATO, collective security, and a great choice for SoS or SoD. I’ve long said she should double down on security leaders and he’d be an interesting, though entirely apolitical and untested Veep option if she can’t get Bob Gates. We’d have three Massholes, two of them Lexington residents on national tickets this year, and maybe four New Englanders if Trump picks Flynn.

I have no idea how he would do with the election in November, but afterward, someone like him might be just what is needed. The two cornerstones of US security policy in Europe– the EU and NATO– are under threat. The EU, from ongoing issues with the EU, and NATO from a non-unity of response to actual Russian military adventurism. And we have a major-party candidate who cheers the demise of the EU, and offhandedly says he might pull the US from NATO, expresses admiration for Putin (!). It is just another step to wondering whether Poland is really worth the trouble after all.

Something like this might help, after January, in calming the nerves over there.

Color me skeptical. My reading is that Hillary is trying to show she selected a vice prez from a wide pool of candidates, of all stripes and ethnicities – Greek, in this case. All the more important if the end choice is a certain white male former Gov from Virginia.

contemporary speeches in general. This one sounded like it had been written by committee: a laundry list of policies. Don’t get me wrong, I like the policies, but I’d like to see some inspirational language in speeches. I haven’t read Clinton’s yet, but Obama’s tend to lack the same luster.

…the annual Throne Speech delivered by Her Majesty at the opening of British Parliament. She’s forced to read a laundry list presented by the Government in a monotone, with no attempt at rhetorical flourishes. It is literally a recitation of, “Our Government will introduce legislation to…; A bill will be proposed that would…”, etc. Compared to our SOTU I’ve long said the Brits do better pomp and circumstance, but our Presidents give better speeches.

You don’t have to be Tom Clancy or Keifer Sutherland to imagine it’s a huge security risk, and I think the laundry list with one partisan side of the aisle clapping while the other sits is not particularly edifying. I don’t recall any memorable lines from SOTUs compared to the listing we have relieved from inaugurals.

I’d have the President send it in writing and to the major papers, let the opposition leaders submit their responses, and we can save the security costs and lost television revenue for bigger occasions. Major policy announcements like the civil rights bill or Obamacare, and obviously national security related speeches should still happen before a joint chamber. I think the rarity of such occasions would give them more power.

They are one of our great national rituals, bringing all three branches together. I do wish they weren’t so poll-tested, but they have generally been a pleasure to listen to and not nearly the snoozers of Throne Speeches. (Of course I wish the Throne Speech could be the one time each year the Sovereign could input her own two cents, but I digress.) I’m sure security is solid and the chances of actually needing the designated survivor are pretty slim.

They’re speeches. I guess they’re exciting if you find politicians making speeches exciting. They aren’t some sort of time-honored ritual, though. They weren’t done live before Wilson,and weren’t done annually before FDR.

At this point, it is little more than BS kabuki. Gasp! Someone frowned! What a breach of protocol! All of those protocols are aping BS monarchies anyway.

Governors General in Commonwealth countries do the same. The number of times these people must read something (and later, give royal assent to) something they thoroughly oppose must be grating. I’d love to know what they’re thinking as they read this.